Where learning begins

A recent state poll on education offers a sense of how thoroughly too many people have washed their hands of education. Those interviewed by the poll commissioned for a coalition of business people, educators and community leaders overwhelmingly agreed that schools need reform and overwhelmingly think parents should be more involved in the equation. But do they see a link between the two?

Before the public embarks on yet another overhaul of its school system, it should consider how parents could help meet the goals most states have adopted as targets for 2000. Goals 2000, which President Bill Clinton endorsed earlier this month, includes the following: “Every school will strive to increase parental involvement and participation in their children’s education.” The success of five of the other seven points in Goals 2000 can be — in fact, will be — determined by how involved parents are with their children’s education.

The work that these goals entail is not glamorous, although the result, a well-educated child, is. They mean working with your kids after working all day on the job. They mean showing up to school open houses and teacher conferences, and supporting teachers who demand more from their students. Most importantly, these goals mean refocusing education from something that occurs only at school to something parents largely determine. Here are five points from Goals 2000:

All children will arrive at school ready to learn. Teachers and school administrators have no control over this. Parents must take responsibility for preparing a young child academically and socially to enter school. In addition, getting a child to bed on time, up on time, washed, dressed in clean clothes and well-fed shouldn’t need governmental goal-setting. If parents want to be more involved, they can start with this goal.

The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent. The first step to success in high school is showing up. To participate, parents can ensure that their kids make it to school. Drive them there and escort them inside, if necessary.

Students will master challenging subject matter. Mastery takes more practice than a six- or seven-hour school day can provide. Parents can help their children become proficient in a subject by helping with homework.

All adult Americans will be literate and able to compete in a global economy. Children will not value education if their parents don’t. No school can enforce lifelong learning, but a parent can teach it by example.

Every school will be free of drugs and violence. No one, not even the most vigilant parent, will stop a child from experimenting with drugs if he or she is determined to. Despite the abundance of local, state and federal programs, educating kids about the danger of drugs ought to begin at home. No need to ask permission of the local school board; no need to wait for government funding. Just start talking.

Though Goals 2000 contains much that is oversimple rhetoric, it expresses important changes that most people would like to see in their schools. But the state doesn’t need another study and its schools don’t need massive reform to carry them out.

Parents who, if the poll is any indication, already believe they should be more involved, can carry out the greatest reforms at home. After that, adequate funding for supplies, well-qualified teachers appropriately compensated and a belief in the community that education is one of the most important things it can give children will outdistance any of the latest reform measures.